Mushrooms, Starfish, Turbo Snails, Anenome all die.

[kwscls]

I am new to this but have had my 75 gal tank up nad running for about 7 months. Have 48 Corallife PCs and a 400 watt metal halide, 2 emporer 400's, about 100 lbs of live rock and 3 inches of sand. I currently have 2 clowns, 1 sailfin, 1 diamond goby, 1 tang, about 5 blueleg hermits ad a few assorted smaller snails. Three days ago i purchased a blue hippo tang, bi-colored, 2 long tip annenomes, and 4 turbos. They were all dead within 48 hours. I thought it might have been where I bought them from but the were all purchased at different stores. The fish and the one of the anennomes lasted the longest. All the fish and snails that were in the tank are fine. And no I did not just throw everything in the tank I acclamated them for over an hour mixing water. About 2 weeks ago I had 2 starfish die just out of the blue that i had in my tank for over 3 months. The wierd deal is they both died the same day. Like I said i am real new to this and so any help would be appreciated greatly.

[Zoofan]

When anenomes die they tend to release some nasty toxins and can kill other tank inhabitants. I have had them die in the tank before and shortly after have other fish dead in thank. As for the star fish, what kind was it? They are very sensitive to changes in S.G., don't know if that helps but might be a start.

Good luck

[txstateunivreefer]

ck for copper

did you put the h20 from the fish store in your tank?

where did you get them from

how do your tank stats look ? nitates etc

[kwscls]

Yes it is a start the star fish were a brittle and and serpant. They had been doing fine for all that time then they die the same day. It was wierd because when I put the new anenomes in the tank they moved around just a little then shriveled up and died. It can get expensive replacing this stuff and it always seems like the stuff my wife really likes is what dies. So that makes it even better.

[Zoofan]

Unfortunately your story is not too unusual. Did you do a water change after they died? There is a lot of chemical interactions that occur between reef animals that we just don't know or understand. Mushrooms are bad about chemical warfare with their own kind. I remember one time I had some real nice shrooms and when I added a different kind, on the other side of the tank the others quickly died off. There was no problems with water levels and everything else in tank did fine.

So sometimes you are not going to figure it out. Look this is a great segway to tell your wife you need a bigger tank (have to look for the positives in these kind of things.) More water volume means less chance these chemical interactions will have a deadly affect. At least that sounds like a good reason.

Good luck and keep the faith.

Mike

[crossxfire2]

when I get married, I am going to use excuses JUST LIKE THAT ONE!

[Bill S]

Post some water test parameters - and are you SURE your salinity is right? For instance, your existing livestock can aclimate to a different salinity, that will kill newcomers.

[MissT]

same goes with nitrates. when they build up over time, the fish that have been in there have had weeks, even months to acclimate to the existing levels, and the new fish are expected to handle it in minutes or hours.

[erikharrison]

Do you have a sump or wet-dry? How much flow do you have? How much are you feeding? Is your tank staying warm with the temp swings? Are you running carbon? A skimmer?